Insidious and Invidious?

                                                                                                                  Vol. VIII, No. 7, August 1995

Stan Hastey is executive Director of the Alliance of Baptists, one of the most liberal Baptist groups. Previously he was a senior staff member of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, another very liberal Baptist group and one which the Baptist General Association of Virginia (WM-2) and the CBF include in their budgets (see 1994 Virginia Baptist Annual, p. 42).

Hastey recently spoke to a meeting of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America during the American Baptist Convention biennial meeting in Syracuse, NY. The following excerpts are from the printed version of his remarks which appeared in the 13 July 1995 issue of the liberal paper Baptists Today, p 27. Emphasis added.

"Nor should American Baptist leaders fall prey to the notion that the hullabaloo they are hearing [regarding homo-sexuality] has to do primarily with sexual orientation. It has to do primarily with inerrancy of Scripture, a particularly insidious and invidious notion which is today and always has been the centerpiece of fundamentalist theology."

"...let me say as emphatically as I know how that what we are facing in Baptist life today is spiritual warfare between two competing ideas, ideas incapable of coexistence."

[Editorial Comment: I agree with Hastey in two respects: He is correct that the "hullabaloo... has to do primarily with inerrancy of Scripture" and that "what we are facing today in Baptist life is spiritual warfare between two competing ideas, ideas incapable of coexistence." If everyone concerned, whether conservative or otherwise, would recognize that fact and take a stand, make an open commitment either to scriptural errancy or inerrancy, the controversy in the SBC and in each state association would be settled quickly and with minimum pain. In my view, it is neither the forthright biblical conservatives nor the open liberals who are the main problem. Rather it is those who are so blind as not to see (or, perhaps, so timid or uncommitted as to pretend not to see) the truths Stan Hastey set forth so succinctly.

Notice Hastey's characterization of scriptural inerrancy as "a particularly insidious and invidious notion..." He is again correct that inerrancy is and always has been the centerpiece of conservative theology. I say, praise God for the men and women who have been willing to sacrifice time, energy, money, reputation, and sometimes position to bring the SBC back from the fatal theological precipice on which it teetered in 1979.

If you agree with Hastey that inerrancy is insidious and invidious, then for heaven's sake have the intestinal fortitude to stand with him and those biblical apostates who agree with him. If on the other hand you believe the Bible is true not merely in its theology but also in its words and facts, then for heaven's sake stand openly, vigorously, and courageously with those who have long fought this spiritual battle. Regardless of personal theological belief, those who refuse to take a stand are in direct need of prayer, for they have rejected the faith and cry peace, peace where there is no peace. They subject themselves to manipulation by pressure from others and thus earn superficial kind words but silent and well-deserved contempt. TCP]